GALANGAL, formerly written “galingale,” and sometimes “garingal,” rhizoma galangae (Arabian, Kholinjan; x German, Calgantwurzel ; F ren ch, Racine de Galanga), is an aromatic stimulant drug. Lesser galangal root, radix galangoe minoris, the ordinary galangal of commerce, is the dried rhizome of Alpiηiα officinarum, Hance, a plant of the natural order Zingiberaceoe, growing in the Chinese island of Hainan, where it is cultivated, and probably also in the woods of the southern provinces of China. The plant is regarded by Dr Hance as closely allied to, but as perfectly distinct from, the Alpinia calcarata of Roscoe, the rhizome of which is sold in the bazaars of some parts of India as a sort of galangal. Its stems attain a length of about 4 feet, and its leaves are slender, lanceolate, and light green, and have a hot taste; the flowers are ebracteate, white with red veins, and in simple racemes; the roots form dense masses, sometimes more than a foot in diameter; and the rhizomes grow horizontally, and are f inch or less in thickness. The drug occurs in short, cylindrical, or somewhat tuberous, often forked pieces, which have a fibrous structure, and externally are reddish-brown and marked with fine longitudinal striations, and with transverse rings showing the points of attachment of scales or leaves, and internally are of a light-brown, becoming darker at the centre. It has a warm, aromatic taste, resembling that of mingled ginger and pepper. On analysis it yields, among other constituents, much starch, an essential oil of the composition C 10 H 16 ,H 2 O (Vogel), and a crystalline body, kαmpferid (Brandes). Greater or Java galangal, radix galangae majoris (French, Galaηga de l , Inde), the rhizome of Alpinia Galanga, Willd., is a drug rarely now imported ...